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"A balut (spelled standardized as balot) is a developing duck embryo (fertilized duck egg) that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It originated and is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines. They are common food in countries in Southeast Asia, such as Laos (khai look ໄຂ່ລູກ in Lao), Cambodia (pong tia koon ពងទាកូន in Cambodian)[1] and Vietnam (trứng vịt lộn or hột vịt lộn in Vietnamese). They are often served with beer. The Tagalog and Malay word balut means "wrapped"."

I have two Filipino grocery stores near my house and I bought two of these and they had been sitting in my refrigerator for a couple of weeks, so yesterday I decided to eat them. I heated them up in boiling water for 90 seconds, then carefully opened them by cracking around the top of the shell until I could take the top of the shell off.

I drank the "soup", and ate the duck embryo. These must've been very young, because there were no feathers or hard bones. It didn't taste "bad" at all, and I didn't look at it really long lest I "chicken out". It kind of tasted like duck.

Now I can say I ate one. Something to share with any Filipinos that I meet in a casino. I won't go out of my way to buy them, but if I'm hungry and have less than a dollar to spend, I have a meal.

One upping my best friend, plus, having an ice breaker for people of different Asian nationalities.

For Koreans, it used to be "Have you seen "Shiri"?"

Shiri was the first Hollywood-style big-budget blockbuster to be produced in the "new" Korean film industry (i.e. after Korea's major economic boom in late 1990s). Shiri was made in 1999.

With Japanese people, it's "Do you eat Natto?"

"Nattō (なっとう or 納豆?) is a traditional Japanese food made from soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto.[1] Some eat it as a breakfast food.[2] Nattō may be an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavor, and slimy texture.[3][4][5][6][7] In Japan nattō is most popular in the eastern regions, including Kantō, Tōhoku, and Hokkaido."

My former boss traveled a whole lot in Asia, and one night after a dozen or so beers he had balut. His had feathers and bones; basically you just squeeze the bottom of the shell and pop it in your mouth and try to chew as little as possible, and drink copious amounts of beer. He was also at dinner with a bunch of people one night and sitting at a big table with a round opening in it. The top of a live monkey's head was lifted up through the hole, and someone with a big knife/sword cut the top off the screaming monkey's head. The everybody grabbed a large spoon and ladled the contents onto their plates. My boss did not partake, but said that freshness is important to these folks- and there was no doubt this was fresh!